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Friday, January 27, 2012

Planning on working from home today, I lay in bed at the late hour of 6:15 trolling the Internet on my phone. I look at food blogs, read about this and that, engage in the wonderful directionless treasure hunt that is web surfing. Today I came across a post about Egg Slut on Squid Ink, LA Weekly's food blog. Coddled eggs in a baby food jar with potato, butter and cream? OMG, I leapt from the bed, threw on some sweats, put a leash on the dog and headed immediately west toward the Egg Slut truck on Fairfax to be there waiting for one when they opened.

Lies. After laying in bed for another thirty minutes pondering the ceiling, I shuffled my pajama clad body into the kitchen and investigated the refrigerator. Potato? Check. Eggs? Duh. Cream? Lactaid. Cheese? Is this a question? Etc. I ambled over the my desktop, reviewed the chemistry of eggs en cocotte by checking out a few blogs, then headed back into the kitchen to see what I could throw together. I sure af was not going to the store.

I boiled one medium red potato, then pureed with a little goat's milk butter, leaving the skin on. Saute half an onion until translucent, add herbs. We had cilantro on hand, I used about a child's handful.

I deglazed the onion/cilantro pan with maybe a cup of Lactaid (someone in the house has lactose issues) and continued to cook until reduced about a third. Grate a cup or so of cheese (I used Parmesan, but was tempted by the pepper jack). Puree herb and onion mix, adding a few tablespoons of chicken broth to keep mixture from sticking to the side of the food processor. Butter or non-stick spray two large or four small ramekins. I used my two giant ramekins because I am piggy when it comes to eggs. Pour the herb puree into the bottom of your ramekins.

Split the potato puree between your ramekins, place in gently. The entire contents will naturally mix a little but you want some layering action.

Sprinkle cheese over the potatoes, don't go nuts. You are going to need to top the entire mess with cheese before it goes into the oven, reserve some of said cheese to do so.

Gently crack two eggs over cheese in large ramekins. If you use small ramekins, one egg per cup. If I had been less piggy more thoughtful, I would have also thrown together a fruit salad from the cara cara oranges and pears we have on hand and made two small ramekins instead of two large and no fruit salad.

Don't forget to feed the dog.

Split the milk/cream/dairy reduction between ramekins. It should mostly cover the eggs. See the pretty cilantro puree seeping up to the top around the edges? Top with cheese.

There are several ways to cook eggs en cocotte. I used a bain-marie in the oven. To make one, I boiled a kettle full of water then filling the broiler pan halfway immediately before adding ramekins. Oven should be at 350F. In the end, I was running out of time as D yelled at me from the his weight lifting/Internet surfing/man sanctuary that he needed to eat within 10 minutes, so I turned the oven up to 400F for the last 7 minutes. I think total cooking time was about 20 minutes, maybe? I measured by the firmness of the yolks. You can decide how firm you like your yolks. Bear in mind, this is a creamy dish anyway. You might enjoy your eggs a little firmer than normal because of all the saucy things going on alongside them.

Serve the dish with toast or something for dipping. Essentially, I took something very sinful and made it a little healthier. It was still delicious, D was really amazed (after having looked slightly annoyed at all the dairy going into the dish, 11 years married and cooking for him, he still doesn't trust that I know what he likes to eat, ffs).

I am now full as a tick, still in my pajamas, and planning to have a really good workout later. Much later.